Fans of the first book will be thrilled to encounter more fact-filled fun.
Dr. Glider travels around the world to advise her patients and instruct her readers.
The bespectacled sugar glider introduced in Eat Your Rocks, Croc! (2020) dispenses more advice, fast facts, and interesting science concepts to 15 new patients here. The doctor’s travels begin and end in Canada, but in between she dives into oceans, flies to Australia, climbs trees and even mountains, visits islands in southeast Asia, the Galápagos, nature reserves in Africa, and the seashore on Nantucket. Spread by spread, each animal is introduced with a given name and its geographical habitat before it poses a question that allows Dr. Glider to reveal a curious fact. The sloth is turning green; that’s algae that grows on its back because it moves slowly and seldom. Blue dragons (a kind of sea slug called a nudibranch) eat the tentacles of the stinging man-of-war to make themselves venomous. The text is simple and short, fitted into speech bubbles. Each spread includes additional facts and concepts in boxes along the right. Keating has a knack for finding intriguing information and the skill to impart it with humor. Oswald’s engaging illustrations feature creatures with expressive, anthropomorphic faces. Dr. Glider has been provided with wonderful accessories: a device for recording the kookaburra; earphones for hearing the infrasonic sounds of the okapi; a safari helmet for exploring the zebra’s savanna. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Fans of the first book will be thrilled to encounter more fact-filled fun. (glossary, cast list) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-23989-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Filled with love and kindness and glorious sweet-talk: “Yippee-i-oh.” (Fiction. 6-9)
Leroy Ninker dreams of being an honest-to-goodness cowboy as he watches Western movies while working at the concession stand at the drive-in theater.
He has some of the lingo down pat, and he knows he will need boots, a hat and a lasso. But his co-worker points out that he is missing the most important element of all: a horse. Providentially, there is a horse for sale. Though she is swaybacked and almost toothless, it is love at first sight when Leroy sees Maybelline. Leroy is given some unusual instructions; he must sweet-talk and compliment the horse, feed her plenty of grub and never leave her alone for more than a few moments. So there he is with a horse that won’t fit through his door, gobbles up potfuls of spaghetti and needs constant attention. Adventures and misadventures abound, and both horse and cowboy become lost in a scary storm. But with a little help from some old friends who have appeared in the author-illustrator team’s earlier works, it all comes together with the expected happy ending. DiCamillo’s quirky, eccentric characters speak in flowery sentiments and employ charming wordplay. Along with Van Dusen’s well-matched illustrations, there’s a sweet, retro innocence reminiscent of McCloskey’s classic Homer Price. Despite the old-fashioned accent, the absurdities will easily appeal to a modern audience.
Filled with love and kindness and glorious sweet-talk: “Yippee-i-oh.” (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6339-1
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Hooray, hooray for this par-tay.
Five more stories featuring buddy pair Fox and Rabbit.
Following the formula of its predecessors, this third installment of the Fox & Rabbit series focuses on Sparrow’s “super-trooper special” birthday. A slightly unrelated opening story introduces a variety of animal characters as Fox—proudly adopting the moniker “Fix-it Fox”—goes around trying to solve everyone’s “enormous problems.” In the next story, Fox and Rabbit scheme to make the “biggest, roundest, yummiest pizza in the world.” They pilfer ingredients from Sparrow’s garden (a nod to the first book) and ask Mouse for mozzarella. Subsequent stories—each contained in a chapter—involve a pizza-cooking dragon, the “really awesome” party, and a birthday wish that finally comes true. Dudás’ full-color cartoon illustrations complement Ferry’s chipper tone and punny dialogue for an upbeat woodland romp. Even the turtle, who always comically arrives at the end of the chapter and misses most of the action, gets to enjoy the party. Another standout scene, in which Fox assumes Dragon doesn’t speak their language and speaks “Dragonian” unprompted, gently addresses microaggressions. Though all dialogue is clearly linked to each speaker, some scenes with lots of back and forth within a single panel gear this to comics readers with a bit of experience. Still, the eight-panel–per-page max and short chapters keep the text accessible and pace quick.
Hooray, hooray for this par-tay. (Graphic early reader. 6-9)Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5183-7
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
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